Hillsborough County Jail

Jail Layout

Interview with Aaron

JM: How many different blocks were there?
Aaron: 36 cells in our pod and there were at least 50 pods in the jail. 18 of our cells had two occupants and the other 18 were singles.

JM: Did they have names? If so, what were they?
Aaron: They all had numbers except for ours which was called the trustee pod. I was not familar witht he names of the other pods if there were names for them.

JM: Which inmates were housed in the different blocks?
Aaron: Some of the blocks had sex crime inmates and a bunch of them were for the more violent jailbirds. Ours as well as a few others had non-violent inmates in them.

JM: What do you remember being the nicest and worst parts about the different blocks?
Aaron: The best part was the vast array of books that were available to us. Many of them were in good condition and informative magazines were also available to us. I also liked how quiet it was because we had a deputy standing in the pod watching us. He didn't ever let it get too loud in there. It made it easier to read, watch TV or have a conversation. The worst part was being in lockdown for 4-5 hours a day. It was warm in the cells most of the time with very little air flow so sometimes it was hard to breathe in there. That normally made people more irritable which made it hard to get along with people sometimes.